Had God chosen to be a powerful king or a mighty general when He decided to become man, He could have just made everyone His subject by a simple decree or fiat. Kings and generals come and go but still life goes on.
Had God chosen to be a great scientist or a prolific inventor when He became a man, he could have just invented for us everything we needed to make life nice and east. Scientists and inventors come and go but still life goes on.
Had God chosen to be a wealthy philanthropist or a successful entrepreneur when He became a man, he could have just given everyone a job for people to have a happy life. But businessmen and entrepreneurs are a recent phenomenon and life went on even without them before.
Had God chosen to be a wise president or a brilliant prime minister when He became man, he could just have just establish a just and perfect society for people to have peace and harmony. But politicians come and go and still life goes on.
Instead God became like us in our ordinariness and joined us in the mundaneness of our existence. Not everyone can be a general but everyone feels fear and experiences violence in their lives. Not everyone can be a scientist but everyone can experience the feeling of exhilaration that comes with discoveries. Not everyone can be an entrepreneur but everyone has a taste of how it is to sweat one’s brows that he might eat. Not everyone can be a president but everyone knows that a society cannot function unless there are effective leaders to guide and inspire people.
Beyond the wars and the discoveries, beyond business and government, men have to go through their ordinary and simple lives. And that is where God touches us the most – when we work, when we strive, when we struggle and yes when we play in our everyday lives. Give to the presidents and the generals and the scientists what is theirs to accomplish and do. But turn to God for those thing that only He can do.
Give the Lord glory and honor.
~ Psalm 96
Pharisees went off
and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.
They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying,
“Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man
and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion,
for you do not regard a person’s status.
Tell us, then, what is your opinion:
Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?”
Knowing their malice, Jesus said,
“Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?
Show me the coin that pays the census tax.”
Then they handed him the Roman coin.
He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?”
They replied, “Caesar’s.”
At that he said to them,
“Then render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God.”
Matthew 22:15-21